Earthbound

May 20, 2013
Pike (the Wings series) opens a new series with a plane crash, and soon lays out more themes popular in recent YA—inexplicable survival, loss of memory, an unknown stalker, apocalyptic showdown, and the protagonist’s transcendent secret identity. Tavia, the 18-year-old survivor, is in rehab and finishing her senior year online. She has time to look at the world with attentive eyes, and what she sees is often unnerving: glowing triangles on the historic houses of Portsmouth, N.H., or pedestrians who flicker. She tries to attribute these visions to the brain injury she sustained in the crash, but she can’t dismiss the stalker with a blond ponytail so easily. Nor do the important people in her life—Elizabeth, an uncannily insightful therapist, and Benson, a sympathetic library intern—encourage her to ignore the growing strangeness. Though Pike’s plot points may riff a little too blatantly on the zeitgeist, her solid writing, particularly in her descriptions, will have readers hooked. Tavia’s low-tech revelation via ChapStick works better than any superbattle to convey what’s at stake in her life and choices. Ages 12–up. Agent: Jodi Reamer, Writers House.